The fight for fair and affordable housing has new momentum in one of the nation’s most segregated metropolitan areas.
Developments in the Fight for Fair, Affordable Housing in the St. Louis Region

The fight for fair and affordable housing has new momentum in one of the nation’s most segregated metropolitan areas.
Assistant Professsor Molly Metzger, faculty director of Thriving Communities at the Center for Social Development, discusses three myths about the causes of segregation during the keynote speech at the 2019 Fair Housing Conference.
The editors of “Facing Segregation: Housing Policy Solutions for a Stronger Society” have compiled a collection of essays that “lay out the reality that segregation is not a periphery problem for cities like St. Louis or for the country,” according to a book review in the St. Louis American.
Fifty years after the passage of the Fair Housing and Civil Rights Acts, a new book ̶ “Facing Segregation: Housing Policy Solutions for a Stronger Society” brings together influential scholars, practitioners and policy analysts to reflect on how to use public policy to reduce segregation.
A new paper by Molly Metzger, assistant professor at the Brown School, and Nay’Chelle Harris, masters research fellow in housing policy, analyzes “Team TIF St. Louis.”
The conference, “Evicted: Poverty & Fair Housing in St. Louis,” drew more than 250 people to Washington University in St. Louis’ Brown School for Desmond’s keynote address and two panels: “St. Louis Eviction Stories” and “Solutions and Next Stops.”
When Molly Metzger was a PhD student, the time came for her to draft research questions for her dissertation. She drew a blank. After three years in classrooms, she felt out of touch with her topic: low-income housing.
Warning that “we are going to see many more Fergusons in this country,” Richard Rothstein recounts the history of government’s role in racial segregation, in a video created for our event “Inclusive Housing: A Public Forum for Policy Action in St. Louis.”
Despite the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, stark racial and economic segregation in housing continues. On Oct. 22, the Center for Social Development and the Clark-Fox Policy Institute hosted “Inclusive Housing: A Public Forum for Policy Action in St. Louis.”
Two new laws in St. Louis will expand housing options for Section 8 renters in the city. Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia sponsored the measures, which were influenced by recent research at Washington University in St. Louis.